


My Whole Life Long

by Phoenix_Falls



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Imagine your OTP, Mild Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-20
Updated: 2015-07-20
Packaged: 2018-04-10 07:07:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4382102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phoenix_Falls/pseuds/Phoenix_Falls
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Imagine your OTP prompt from tumblr: Imagine Person A of your OTP is taking a bubble bath while Person B sits on the edge of the tub talking to them. It could be about anything. They could just be making general chit chat about their respective days or they could be discussing a more serious matter. It’s up to you.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Whole Life Long

It was Wednesday evening and Emily only just barely managed to turn the agonized whine that wanted to leave her mouth into an exasperated sigh as the time on her watch clicked over from 5:45 to 5:46. She squeezed her eyes shut briefly in an effort to stave off a migraine on the horizon and tried to focus on the consultation file in front of her. Normally, Emily Prentiss was the kind of woman who worked when it was time to work and could leave the rest out of her head. But that was before the hellish week she’d just had to endure. It figured that the week leading up to her first _real_ vacation would have been one that put her through the ringer. It wasn’t just her first real vacation practically since she’d started collecting paycheques, but it was her first real vacation since she and JJ had started dating.

Sure, in the eight months they’d been dating, they’d had some time off of work together; the most recent of which had been a long weekend just a month ago, but they’d spent the entire three days managing to con the team into helping them finish up moving JJ into Emily’s, now _their_ , apartment. Besides that, they’d always been on call when they weren’t working. No, this was a _real_ vacation and not just being on stand down or keeping their fingers crossed over the weekend. Everyone on the team had a stockpile of vacation days they never really got a chance to use and when they _did_ have the chance, they were all so job oriented that more than a couple days off felt irresponsibly luxurious. Apparently that bothered Human Resources enough that they were requiring everyone in the BAU to take vacation time. Even Hotch, much to his chagrin. HR was pissed enough to _make_ them take time off but not enough to let the whole team go at once, so they’d been staggering their vacations.

JJ’s last day had been the previous weeks Tuesday and at first, Emily had been kind of into it. JJ’s internal clock hadn’t unwound right away and by the time Emily was out of the shower in the morning, there’d be some kind of breakfast waiting for her since they both knew that if Emily were left to her own devices, a travel mug full of coffee and a couple of cookies were the _only_ parts of her balanced breakfast. While they usually came home around the same time as it was, there was something delightfully domestic about coming home from work and JJ already being there and being relaxed.

But then they got a case in Indiana.

Outside of away cases where they hadn’t shared a room, Emily hadn’t spent a night apart from JJ for the last three months but that’s precisely what she’d done the last five days. It was funny how utterly accustomed to sleeping alone Emily had been before JJ and she’d foolishly assumed it wouldn’t be that big of a deal if she slept alone for a while again. Sure, she’d missed the calming effect JJ had on her during cases just by being around, but before they’d started dating she had actually preferred to sleep alone more often than not and she’d been looking forward to not having her pillows stolen in the middle of the night. But as it had turned out, being several states away had made a difference. Despite Emily dutifully calling JJ before she went to bed (though she would have even if JJ hadn’t asked her to), she apparently couldn’t drift off very well without her girlfriend somewhere nearby, which resulted in a week of restless sleep. Restless sleep that made her irritable which certainly didn’t help matters with the combative locals. Restless sleep that was the likely cause of the latest head injury she suffered at the hands of their plywood plank wielding unsub.

They’d gotten back early enough in the day that letting the team go home wasn’t an option which had escalated Emily’s increasingly foul mood. The irritability she’d picked up in Indiana from the posturing, territorial, barely-cooperative LEO’s and lack of sleep had been compounded upon during the flight home when Morgan spent the little over an hour they were in the air ribbing her about just what she and JJ were going to get up to with a week off together and no chance of being called in. Emily knew he’d just been trying to lighten her mood, but she’d’ve been lying if she hadn’t briefly (but seriously) considered cold cocking him. There was still a dull throbbing radiating throughout her head, she was tired, beyond annoyed with everyone and everything, and on _top_ of that, she’d had to redo three case reports that seemed to have been lost in their absence before trying to whittle down the stack of consults she was currently don’t a terrible job at trying to focus on.

“Hey, Emily.” Reid called softly across from her, causing her to blink slowly and look up at him with a raised eyebrow. He smiled gently at her and nodded his head toward the clock on the wall. “I’m pretty sure no one would say anything if you left now.”

Emily glanced down at her own watch and found that she’d been sending a death glare at the consult in front of her for the last fifteen minutes and it was already six o’clock. She had planned on staying for her normal workday, which generally ended between seven and nine, but close of business day had been an hour ago and she honestly didn’t need to be told twice so she gave the lanky genius a tight but grateful smile and hurriedly got her desk in order before collecting her things and all but bolting towards the elevators, casually waving a middle finger at Morgan and the smartass remark he called out to her on her way out.

Normally the drive between work and home took less than an hour, but a four-car pile up on I-95 ensured that she stormed into her apartment two and a half hours after she’d sat down behind the wheel of her car. Emily was generally pretty fastidious about her routine when she got home: keys in the wooden bowl by the door, go bag in the laundry room, service piece and badge in the safe in the living room, and if she wasn’t going upstairs right away; shoes off by the bottom of the stairs and jacket over the bannister. After heeling the door shut with an irritated growl however, she tossed her keys in the direction of the bowl—knowing and not caring that she missed it by the clunk they made against the entryway table—and kicked her shoes off on her way towards the kitchen, tossing her go bag after them and aiming for the general direction of the living room but not bothering to see if anything landed there.

Emily set her gun heavily onto the kitchen bar counter, tossing her badge carelessly next to it and after shrugging angrily out of her work jacket, dropped it indelicately on a stool before rifling through the cabinets on a hunt for a wine glass.

Pouring a healthy amount of Malbec into the glass, Emily took a short pull directly from the bottle before setting it down hard next to her things and trying to shake the dismal mood she was in by hunting around for her girlfriend. She’d called JJ when she left work and again when she got caught behind two endless lanes of assholes who insisted on checking out the accident to tell her she was going to be late, but she wasn’t sure where to expect JJ by the time she got home.

The blonde obviously wasn’t anywhere downstairs or she would have been drawn by the angry clattering Emily hadn’t even thought to keep down, so she trudged up the stairs with her glass of wine, trying to keep her jaw unclenched. All she wanted to do was to see her girlfriend and forget the whole last week for the next two and a half. Her sour mood lifted a little when she registered the sound JJ’s voice alternating between humming and singing lightly coming from their bedroom and she made her way to the threshold of the overlarge master bathroom, content to just watch the other woman for a moment.

JJ was sunk up to her chin in their tub, arms draped over the sides and surrounded by bubbles. She lifted her head from the edge of the tub when she heard Emily’s feet scuffle and smiled broadly at her, beckoning her over. Since she’d stopped singing, Emily could hear that there was soft music coming from the speakers of JJ’s phone that had been set carefully on the edge of the sink and Emily shuffled over to perch on the edge of the tub when JJ moved her arms and sat up, offering the blonde her wineglass. JJ took a small appreciative sip and handed it back, watching in amusement as Emily took several long gulps and sighed tiredly when she was finished.

“Was today that bad?” JJ laughed, propping her elbow on the lip of the tub so she could rest her head in her hand.

“Today, yesterday, the four days before that…” Emily confirmed sourly, running a hand through her hair as she trailed off. 

“Wanna tell me about it?” JJ asked sympathetically.

Emily sighed again and started to shake her head slightly before meeting the concerned and genuinely interested gaze of her girlfriend and breathed out loudly, launching into telling JJ about everything that had gone wrong in the last week. Generally she would have liked to let it go, but if there was one thing JJ had been determined to get Emily to work on since they’d known each other, never mind since they’d started dating, it was Emily’s tendency to bottle things up that she either didn’t feel were important or she didn’t want to bother anyone with (which JJ habitually pointed out meant she had a tendency to keep _everything_ to herself). So whenever JJ asked her if she wanted to talk about something, Emily made a concentrated effort to oblige and truly, she usually felt better afterwards but right now what little ire had left her since she’d come upstairs was returning and she could feel the bitter attitude that had descended on her days ago start to return like her own personal thundercloud.

JJ had noticed Emily’s slip into a more profoundly foul mood as well and gently relieved her girlfriend of the wineglass, leaning partway out of the tub to set it carefully on the floor behind it and rising up slightly to cup Emily’s face between her hands to bring their lips together in a languid kiss, both of their eyes slipping closed and Emily lightly gripping JJ’s forearms. JJ only pulled back with a satisfied grin when Emily started nipping repeatedly at her lower lip.

“Better now?” she asked, watching as the dark mood hanging over Emily’s head dissipated like magic, dopey smile spreading over the brunette’s face in place of the frustrated frown that had been there.

“Just about,” Emily murmured, leaning forward slowly in an effort to capture JJ’s lips again. “But you’d better do it again and make sure.”

JJ bit her lip with a chuckle and dragged her eyes up from Emily’s lips to meet her eyes. “Well,” she drawled. “How about you join me?”

“That sounds like an even better idea.” Emily gamely nodded and ran her thumbs along the skin of JJ’s arms. “But,” she pointed out. “You have to let go if I’m going to get in.” Emily immediately regretted her choice of words the second they left her mouth because there was a mischievous glint in the other woman’s eyes and her smile had turned positively puckish. 

“Is that so?” JJ purred, holding the brunette’s face a little tighter.

“Jennifer, _no_.” Emily said sternly, the smile tugging at her lips betraying her tone.

“Jennifer, _yes_.” JJ corrected, sliding up a little higher to kiss her again. She could feel Emily try and anchor herself to the floor with the shift of her leg which only encouraged JJ to curl her tongue in a way that was a clear promise of things to come and had always been a guaranteed move to eradicate every rational thought in Emily’s head, which she knew she’d accomplished when the older woman whimpered needily and JJ took advantage of Emily’s inattention by roughly yanking her forward while she moved back, toppling Emily off the edge of the tub and directly into it. 

JJ was laughing hysterically even before Emily shrieked when she hit the water. If she hadn’t heard her girlfriend make such a noise on a few occasions with her own ears, she would have _never_ believed a sound like that could come out of Emily Prentiss. Emily was sputtering but laughing, soaking herself even further as she got the rest of the way into the tub in order to make getting out easier and she hauled herself out of the deep porcelain basin, dripping water all over the marble tiles of the floor.

JJ folded her arms on top of the edge of the tub and rested her chin on her forearms, laughing while Emily struggled to rid herself of her clothes that were now tight against her frame with water retention.

“You think you’re funny, don’t you?” Emily asked with mock-graveness as JJ practically lost her ability to breathe while watching her girlfriend fight to untangle her pants from around her legs.

“I’m incredibly delightful and you love me.” JJ informed her, her eyes roaming over the brunette’s frame as she dropped the last of her soaking clothes with a pathetic plop onto the wet pile at her feet.

“You’re an incredible pain in the ass is what you are.” Emily corrected, flicking her wet hair at JJ’s face as she slipped into the tub between the blonde’s legs and leaned back against her. “But I _do_ love you,” she conceded with an overly dramatic rendition of a long-suffering sigh. “I _guess_.”

“Lucky me.” JJ laughed lightly and started lathering shampoo in Emily’s hair now that it was already heavy with water. “I love you too.” She said, pausing her ministrations to kiss Emily’s shoulder. “So, do you still want to talk about your day?”

Emily hummed absentmindedly, having completely forgotten what she’d been so upset about in the face of her gratefulness to be home and be with JJ. “Tell me about your day.” She suggested, closing her eyes as JJ’s nails raked gently over her scalp.

Nearly four hours later found Emily and JJ watching television on the living room couch, JJ in an enormous DC United tee that perpetually hung off one shoulder, Emily in a loose tank and boxers, and both of them still pleasantly full from dinner. JJ had one leg tucked under her with Emily’s head in her lap, cheek pressed against her bare thigh and combing her fingers through dark silken strands. Emily was stretched across the couch, the fingers of one hand laced between JJ’s that the blonde had draped across her torso. Emily shifted her weight as she rolled over onto her back, watching JJ’s features flicker in the light of the screen. JJ glanced down at her briefly as she moved and Emily squeezed the hand in hers with a slight smile to let her know everything was fine, JJ returning both gestures before refocusing her attention on David Attenborough speaking soothingly about jungle animals.

Emily smiled involuntarily as she felt a warm swell of energy flow through her body and lodge itself comfortably in her chest when JJ giggled in childish glee at some adorably absurd looking tiny mammal with enormous eyes and long bony fingers. Emily had never really been the sentimental type; at least, she _thought_ she hadn’t been the sentimental type but apparently she just hadn’t been with the right people because with JJ, that kind of thing came naturally. So it wasn’t as if Emily wasn’t already well acquainted with occasionally (well, okay, _frequently_ ) feeling amazed with how lucky she was and flooded with love for the other woman, but watching Jennifer smile slightly and gnaw on her lower lip softly while her eyes grew a little unfocused as she thought bout something, Emily was filled with the want for this, for what they had, every night. Every night for good.

They hadn’t been together that long, in the grand scheme of things, but Emily knew with a startling and excited kind of clarity and acceptance that she was going to marry this woman.

She watched a goofy grin light up JJ’s face briefly before she shook her head at herself and glanced down at Emily, finally registering that she’d been staring at her since she moved positions. “What’re you thinking about?” JJ asked while tugging lightly on the brunette’s hair a few times.

Emily shook her own head with a grin because what could she possibly say? ‘Oh nothing, just thinking about how much I want to marry you’? No, not when JJ had only just moved in last month; that was ridiculous, wasn’t it? So Emily didn’t answer her, not with words anyway. She just propped herself up on an elbow and gripped the front of JJ’s shirt, easily pulling her into a heated kiss.

 

* * *

 

 

JJ let out an easy sigh and ran her thumb idly across the back of Emily’s hand that she held loosely in her own, her head resting comfortably against the older woman’s shoulder while Emily’s arm was draped over her, the brunette’s fingers tracing random patterns on the bare shoulder she could never get her favourite sleep shirt to cover. She smiled when she felt Emily lean over and press a kiss to the top of her head.

“This is my favourite part of the day.” Emily told her in a matter-of-fact tone.

JJ pulled out of Emily’s embrace a bit so she could look at her and kissed the corner of her mouth. “Mine too,” she agreed.

They held each other’s gaze for a moment and JJ got the distinct impression that Emily was looking for something. She wasn’t sure what it was, but she was content to let her girlfriend look, understanding that she’d explain it to her in a moment. As if in response to JJ’s thoughts, Emily nodded slightly and shifted back a little further on the couch to cradle JJ’s hands in both of hers.

“Do you remember about a year ago?” Emily started. “We were laying here and you’d asked me what I was thinking?”

JJ cocked her head to one side, trying to recall what Emily was talking about and coming up with too many scenarios to pinpoint something so vague. “I don’t think so?”

“That night you pulled me into the tub? Right around when you first moved in.”

 JJ laughed delightedly at the memory and nodded. “You looked like the saddest wet puppy.” She teased.

Emily rolled her eyes, but she was smiling as she continued, “yeah, well, I was laying here watching you and you asked me what I was thinking; do you remember that?”

JJ could. She could vividly recall that night and that moment because she remembered exactly what _she’d_ been thinking. “I remember you didn’t answer me.” She pointed out in a playfully accusatory tone.

Emily smiled beatifically as if that were the exact answer she wanted and squeezed JJ’s hands lightly. “I’ll tell you. I was thinking about nicely we fit together—in this apartment, on this couch, in each other’s lives—I was thinking about how beautiful you are, how easy it is to love and be loved by you. I was thinking about how even when we fight, being with you has _always_ been so easy and comfortable and how _lucky_ I felt; still feel. How I never wanted that feeling to go away. I…” Emily paused and bit her lower lip gently, a habit picked up from JJ once the blonde had managed to (mostly) break Emily of her nail biting habit. “I was thinking about how I wanted to do this with you every night for the rest of my life.”

JJ sat up more attentively and felt the air in her lungs lodge in her throat. “So what about right now?” she asked. “What are you thinking now?”

“Oh, now?” Emily drawled mirthfully, studying the ceiling like she had to wonder about it.

“Don’t be a jackass, Prentiss.” JJ reprimanded with a laugh, tugging on Emily’s hands to bring her focus back to her and accepting the quick kiss Emily pressed to her lips.

“ _Now_ I’m thinking about how I’d be a fool to waste a single second more not telling you any of those things. Now I’m thinking about how I  _still_ feel that way and still want those things a year later. I’m thinking about how I want to be with  _you_ forever.”

“Forever is an awfully long time, Em.”

Emily shook her head. “Not long enough as far as I’m concerned. I love you _so_ much Jennifer, and I want to marry you.”

“Are you just letting me know,” JJ said cautiously. “Or are you asking me a question?” 

Emily had never thought she’d want to get married. In all honesty, she’d never thought she’d get to the point with someone where that felt like something she would want to do. Every time she had pictured proposing to or being proposed to by some mental-image and vaguely faceless ideal woman when she was younger, the prospect had always terrified her, even in an imaginary situation. It had filled her with an almost palpable sense of dread, but Emily had never lied to JJ and she hadn’t been lying when she told her that with her, even the hard things were easy.

But this wasn’t hard at all. It was almost uncomfortable after all that expectation built up in her head about this kind of scenario how utterly devoid of trepidation and anxiousness she was. This was the easiest thing she’d ever done and if JJ wanted her to ask outright, Emily would ask outright. “Will you marry me?”

JJ was grinning but she remained silent for a moment, the quiet between them full and warm and it didn’t occur to Emily to feel anything other than expectantly hopeful.

“Do you know what I’m thinking right now?” JJ asked in lieu of a direct answer.

Emily hadn’t been anticipating a question to answer her question and a peripheral sense of nerves fluttered in her stomach as she shook her head and indulged the blonde. “No; what?”

“I’m thinking about how I wish you’d said something then because I had been thinking the same things. I’m thinking about how even then, my answer would have been yes.” She felt the smile on her face spread to match the grin blossoming on Emily’s as she pulled herself into the brunette’s lap and leaned towards her.

“And what’s your answer now?” Emily asked needlessly, the question breathed against JJ’s lips.

“Oh, now?” JJ drawled, ghosting her lips across the brunette’s without actually kissing her.

“Don’t be a jackass, Jareau.” Emily parroted, the throaty chuckle she’d started to let out getting interrupted by the hitch in her breathing as JJ’s hands slid under the hem of her shirt.

“Don’t get used to that.” JJ advised. “It’ll be Prentiss-Jareau once we get married.”

“I’m pretty sure I can remember that.” Emily assured her fiancée, sighing happily when JJ finally kissed her.


End file.
